OBX Long Tube Header Install

[1nastyss]

I decided to put on some 1 7/8" diameter long tube headers with high flow cats. One thing that I wanted was the car to have zero drone at highway speeds so I decided to keep the catback system stock. I know there has been a ton of discussion and disagreement about the OBX headers on the forums. I decided to order the OBX headers for a few reasons:
1. I liked the full welds between the flange and the tubes. Not all of the higher priced headers have these. That is why I chose them over ARH and Kooks.
2. The tubes appear to be more equal length than comparably priced headers like BBK. This again was probably just an aesthetic thing. I didn't even measure the actual length of the tubes.
3. Stainless was the way to go. There were several lower cost options that were just painted. I wanted something that would not rust out.
4. The guys on the forum that installed OBX had good feedback and I didn't see any complaints about fit or finish.

I wanted to share what I learned and a few anecdotes about the install. Hopefully it will be useful to someone:
1. I underestimated how long it would take. I figured 4 hours using jack stands, no air tools working alone. It actually took me 8.5 hours and a used air tools for some of it. Had it not been for the 4 oxygen sensors, it probably would have taken about 4 hours. More than 50% of my time was spent fussing with the O2 connectors, detaching them from the exhaust pipe or lengthening their wires. So plan accordingly.
2. Instead of buying O2 wire extensions for the front ones, I decided to splice in the added length (5 inches). This wasn't too bad to do and I think in the end it may have a cleaner look than having an extra foot or two of wire hanging out by the headers. One thing I should have done differently was to stagger the splices a little more to make feeding the protective cable over them a little easier. I soldered in my connections and used shrink tube over them. This could still be done with crimp on connectors but I don't recommend it.
3. The driver's side exhaust manifold and converters almost didn't come out between the garage floor, the firewall and the steering linkage. I had the car a good foot off the floor. A lift would have made that a bit easier.
4. The passenger side exhaust manifold and converters basically fell out of the car with no clearance issues.
5. The driver's side plugs, wires and exhaust manifold bolts were easy to access and I used hand tools. Maybe took 15 minutes for all that.
6. The passenger side plugs, wires and exhaust manifold bolts were much harder to get to and probably took me an hour. I also used an air ratchet because there wasn't much room to swing a hand ratchet.
7. Everything is metric (of course).
8. The O2 sensors were not coming loose while under the car so I had to separate the connector and remove them with the exhaust pipes, except for the passenger side rear. The two on the back of the engine block for the front were tough. You have to pull the rubber/plastic pin before they will separate. This wouldn't have been hard if they had been on a work bench. But between the engine block and the firewall its hard. The almost impossible one was the back one on the drivers side. It is located above the shift linkage between the tranny and the body. If I were to do it again, I would have tried harder to unscrew that one from the exhaust pipe rather separate the electrical connector. That's what I was able to do on the passenger side and it paid off when I went to install it later.
9. The headers went up into their spots very easily from underneath the car. There were no fitment issues. The passenger one may be touching one spot on the heat shield but I didn't notice any issue with that like vibration, noise or burning, etc.
10. I didn't use the crappy looking gaskets that came with the OBX headers. There were a lot of guys saying on the forums not to use them and I agree. Re-using the stock gaskets is a better option.
11. I used anti-seize on all threads that interact with the aluminum heads such as spark plugs and exhaust bolts. I re-used the stock exhaust bolts. Also used anti-seize on the O2 sensor threads.
12. The bolts that came with the headers for attaching the collectors to the converters were too short to use the supplied springs. I put the nuts and bolts on without the spring. Had to. Hopefully that won't cause any alignment or fatigue issues as the car ages.
13. I left all the manifold bolts, collector bolts and the two band clamps loose while I positioned the resonator height using the car jack. Once everything was where I wanted it, I started tightening things. The manifold bolts were first. I torqued them to 15 ft. lb. from the inside out. Then went to the collector bolts then the band clamps. The band clamps - I really cranked on them. The collector bolts were torqued until they were snug but I felt they weren't going to bend the flanges. I am going to check everything after driving it a bit to see if anything loosens up.
14. I used by SCT programmer to tell it that long tubes had been installed.
15. When I fired it up, there was a fair amount of smoke from the exhaust, which I expected from previous posts.
16. It sounds different than with the stock exhaust. But only in frequencies not in volume. I measured the dB of the exhaust inside the car and 3 feet behind the bumper both before and after the install. I saw no difference at idle. Inside 55-60 dB. At rear bumper 75-85 dB. Fairly quiet.
17. The quiet ends when you get on it. Between the CAI and the long tubes, it absolutely roars at WOT. I sounds AWESOME!
18. The butt dyno seems to agree too that it has more power.
19. No CEL so far. I don't expect one since it was re-programmed to accept the long tubes.








9.

[3rdgen3]

Nice write-up and good story. Enjoy it

[BlaqWhole]

I did mine in my parking lot on ramps and with hand tools on a decent Summer day. It took me about 7 hours with a couple stops to rest, eat, drink some water, and clean up a bit. It was probably closer to 8 hours. The only issue I found was that the ramps did not bring the car up high enough for me to get the headers on. I had to get a jack and some pieces of wood and jack the car up a bit more. The O2 sensors on mine reached but it took some stretching, lol!! All in all it is a good job that you would probably only wanna do once and never again, lol!! It isn't bad, but it isn't fun. You'll save a lot of money doing it yourself. But a shop with a lift and air tools should be able to do it in 3 hours maybe 4 hours max. At $90-$100 an hour you're looking at $400 for the install. That might be worth it to some if you don't have the tools or time. Anyway OP, good job. Make sure you get a custom tune.

[Avenging Orange]

Welcome to Club OBX! Not as much debate anymore. Earlier, when I got mine, we caught a lot of grief for buying them. NOW...many have discovered there are lots of quality headers out there at a reasonable price. I have a hard time justifying the added cost of a name. ENJOY!

[4T9erSS]

I bought my car with OBX headers and hi flo cats, but I want to go catless. What size mid pipes should I go. I read on EBay that these are 2.5” outlet and I believe the catback is the Kooks which is 3”, so do I need to find a 2.5” to a 3” connection pipe?

[CompleteStreet]

Congrats on your new headers!